home again??...blame it on the insomnia

shocking......
but the trip to arizona was horrible. i did bring home the two new horses, that was really the only good thing to happen............................................

here is my very exciting story....
i leave at the crack of dawn, everything is doing great till i make the genius decision not to fill my truck up in pecos....... if you havent been to south west texas on the 20 there isnt anything between pecos and el paso....... so i run out of gas and have to coast into the gas station after running on empty for 9 miles. yep i was freaking out. i figure that after that there shouldnt be any more issues...... well right after i get through the traffic horror which is tucson i get a flat on my trailer....... its now 11 at night and im barely off the freeway so i call usrider to come fix it for me. the guy comes out and he could be cody nielsen's older brother (it was like the twilight zone). it takes me 23 hours to get to scottsdale. which is way longer than its supposed to be.

the 8 days i was there sucked, i didnt do anything for new years ( i was actually asleep by 10)........i barely got to ride....... arizona nationals was super small and pathetic. i did get to hang out with jessica and her parents. its really cool to be around there, especially with all the crap happening out there, they feel like home. since i knew them back when i was little before they moved away. but now jessica and i keep in touch......... it takes me a couple days but i talked her into driving home with me (which could possibly be the best decision i ever made).

on our way back to texas we blew a tire EVERY 300 miles!!!! turns out my trailer has a bent axle AGAIN!!! so we had to change 5 flats...... but now jessica and i are going to join a nascar pit crew cause we are insanely fast. we had to buy 2 new tires in tucson and another in el paso......... the construction guys in el paso were great and helped us find a cheap tire place right off the freeway.... and even the guys at the tire place were great and we ended up buying another rim since we had 10 hours to go in texas mostly on the 20 and all those small towns shut down in the middle of the night. we had left scottsdale at 5 (and its only supposed to take 6 hours from there to el paso) by the time we got out of el paso it was 6pm already..........we had rain most of the way which was awesome. AND jessica had to make the 8am flight home from DFW. by the time we changed all those tires (and stopped at this creepy gas station where they people wouldnt stop talking to me) jessica was going to miss her flight..... so mom met us at the 45 and jessica switched trucks in the poring rain. i didnt get home until 8 in the freakin morning..........YEP THATS 25 HOURS ON THE ROAD (with the time change people, keep up).

i also started counting dead coyotes on the side of the road on my way to arizona and then jessica and i continued it on the way home...... we ended up with 63. im hoping to beat that when i go back out there in march.

jessica barely made her flight and when i went back out later that day i see that i have ANOTHER FLAT on a different tire.......

anyway ive been home for a couple weeks and i cant sleep so i thought i was share my latest adventure with you all.

its been awhile

i completely forgot i had this page..........
since my last post my parents have separated and i now live in east texas. i guess thats all the necessary information to catch you up.

i fully love where i live now, im the same person i was back in cali (more relaxed and less stressed out but still the same). ive finally found a place where my love big jewelry and big hair is not just accepted but imbraced. im not a believer in fate or destiny but, i do think that im supposed to be living here. im surronded by rodeo people and this is definatley the place i need to be to futhure my career. the people who rent my back house drive me compeletly insane, i cant stand them......... which is awkward since my barn is 20 feet from their house but oh well. OH!!! they hit my mom's dog last night with their truck and then didnt tell us until my mom stopped by their work today and the dad was like "by the way, i ran your dog over last night"...... who says stuff like that???

i was supposed to leave yesterday for arizona, but as usual it just didnt happen. the guy who's house i am going to be staying at (he is basically my business partner) didnt answer my phone calls all week...... which stressed me out like non-other. but i talked to him today and its all lined up for me to leave here before sunrise on sunday........ im really looking forward to 17 hours on the road by myself, yeah im not kidding. i just hope my truck doesnt have any issues on this trip. its been acting up a little lately. i am super excited about spending some time in arizona. its going to be barrels 24/7, which is exactly what i need...... ive been way less than focused lately. im taking reba out because i am trading her for 2 new barrel horses. one is a 10 year old aqha bay gelding "scooter" and the other is an unregistered buckskin gelding "badger". while im out there im going to run angel and scooter at the arizona nationals...... oh and you know there will be some serious partying going on, with me, cara, and jaimes all in the same house for a couple weeks. new years should be a good time ;)

update

well Ginger is laid up till at least June 1st. i have no idea if i will be able to run her at palomino world this year or not. its definately not the way i had my year planned. its weird not taking her with me every week....... ive spent basically every day with that mare since i bought her two years ago, now i just load up the two new kids and leave. angel is slowly picking up points, im trying really hard not to get ahead of myself with that mare.... she is coming along so fast but i have to keep reminding everyone that she has only been doing patterns since february and had never left the place i bought her from and she is already 6.

i have a ton of shows lined up so who knows if i will get angel qualified....... i sure hope i will be able to AND i still need a couple more points in the 2 barrel classes with ginger once she is back.

well ive a very random and very frustrating day so im going to bed.......................night all

someone shoot me in the head

so these last 2 weeks have been a royal pain in the ass....... ginger's neck is out, so bad that she cant turn her head to the left at all. which makes it pretty much impossible to run..... she damn near ran off with me last week. i have an appointment with Jamie's chiropractor tomorrow so hopefully he can get my mare back to normal before the show in arizona this weekend. its so damn frustrating, we didnt get any points last weekend and only got 1/2 this weekend in senior barrels (which im still not sure should have been on that horse, but oh well) . she is so close to being qualified in her last 2 classes and now she cant turn. AND to top it off palomino world is in 4 months........so im having some pretty serious panic attacks about that.



the only good part of not being able to focus on ginger is that ive had the extra time to spend with the new horse, angel...... even if i say she is going to be fast no one will believe it at this point. she is running low 20's on a fullsize barrel pattern with less than a month of pattern work. ive never ridden a horse that loved to run like this mare........ all my good horses just hated to lose, but she gets so happy when its time to run...... i was sure she would hate poles, if you saw the stride on the mare you would think so too. but last week i decide to lope her through just cause i was bored lol and she got all excited, she is still doing 30 second poles but thats just because i have to keep slowing her down, she gets WAY too ahead of herself....... that and im not practing poles with her, once ginger is qualified then i will do everything in my power to get angel to the world show in barrels.







----ANGEL----

2 down 2 to go

Ginger is qualified in amateur poles!!!!

i should have been done in the amateur barrels ( i only need .5 more) but today in our run she went down twice really hard, once around the first barrel and once around the third. the ground was wet and hard....i seriously hate rancho murieta. i ended up with 5 points for the weekend, which puts me at 20 so far for the year. not great but way better then last year.

Angel is so freaking fun to ride. i could seriously lope that mare all day. she is getting the barrels, but the pattern was so small at this place that with a stride that long she wasnt able to think fast enough. i know she isnt going to be a small pattern horse (which is fine cause ginger is actually becoming a decent barrel horse as long as it isnt a long run home). i cant wait to get to open angel up! her only issue here is that she cant see anyone from her stall so she is freaking out, its going to be a long wait till she grows out of that.

im surprised this show was good at all, i got 50 miles from home and realized that i left my purse and everything that was in it......id, wallet, and a ton of random crap in my house. i then hit road work on every road i was on in the 7 1/2 hours it took me to get here.

im excited that im done in both ginger's good classes...... im taking all 3 to the special event next week so i should pick up a ton of points. AND im getting my tattoo tuesday :) hopefully it doesnt tickle really bad (im not really worried about the pain just that my foot is super ticklish)

well nap time is over so i better drive the 25 minutes back to the barn so i can load up and feed cause i want to get an early start tomorrow......................

March

Well its the beginning of March, and to most people its not a very interesting month..... just one more on the way to summer. Well around here its the first really busy month of show season.... Here is the show schedule for this month........

Back 2 Basics @ Rancho Murrieta, Ca.
Leave Thurs * 6
Run Fri & Sat * 7 - 8
Home Sun * 9

Special Event @ Atascadero, Ca.
Leave Sat & Run Sat * 15
Home Sun * 16

Central Valley @ Reedley, Ca.
Leave Thurs * 20
Run Fri & Sat * 21 - 22
Home Sat 22

Shamrock Circuit @ Tucson, Az.
Leave Wed * 26
Run Fri & Sat * 28-29
Home Sun * 30


The shows arent the hard part of the month. March 25 is the 3 year anniversary of Heather's death..... It doesnt get easier, it is supposed to get easier isnt it?? 3 years should get less depressing and yet its just as hard this year as it has been. Im already having problems not crying when i think about her.

At least im FINALLY getting my tattoo, its taken a long time to come up with something to remind me of her. That will happen next tuesday and im pretty excited about it.

im qualified AND in the boys' club

i am sitting in my hotel room in hurricane, utah and its kinda freaking me out. i am the only person staying here tonight.......my poor truck is all alone in the parking lot, its creepy.

anyway.......................

the show was great, i was worried i was going to be bored being here for days before it was time to run..... (i had to come early to sell my show stuff, and i actually sold a lot of it).......but thanks to alex, trey, and jamie my week was entertaining to say the least ;) ive laughed more this weekend then you can imagine. and now im officially "in the club' and ive found my secret talent........word searches lol

on to the horses..................

ginger - is now qualified in senior poles!!!! and only need 1 point in am poles, 1.5 in am barrels, and 4.5 in sr barrels. she won all 4 of our classes today and worked 100000 times better than she was in arizona.

angel - worked GREAT for her first show ever..... she is a few years behind, since she is already 6 but i have no doubt that she will be incredible. hopefully i will get her qualified in at least 1 of the barrel classes.

fred - was a big stinking dork, but his pole patterns are getting better.......even if we just trotted again. the jury is still out on if he is going to make a pole horse or not.

its now 8:30 and the combination of running three horses for the first time in years and drinking and watchin the oscars is making it impossible for me to stay awake...........................................................

so good night all.............